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Sunday, 29 December 2013

Students Demonstrate Outside Council meeting in the Holiday Inn on 12 December

A long running battle between students and staff of Unitech continues against former Unitech chancellor Philip Stagg, former pro-chancellor Ralph Saulep, terminated UNITECH Professor Narayan Gehlot and higher education minister David Arore.

Wednesday, 25 December 2013

Here is my year in pictures. First of course the unlawful and unjustified deportations on 7 February, 8 March and narrowly avoided on 15 April. The experience of being treated as a criminal and being hunted down in PNG by an angry Minister and his armed guns for hire, was truly memorable. As a consequence, Paulina and I spent the rest of the year in exile and mostly in limbo as to our future.

The highlights were certainly the splendid and ongoing hospitality offered by James Cook University's Cairns Institute, where I was appointed as Adjunct Professor. Furthermore, meeting other Vice-Chancellor's from the Global South at the World Academic Summit in Octobre in Singapore was memorable. It was also nice to receive the best conference paper award for my work on time-use in India and PNG.

Minister David Arore, I am sure many who support our current government were pleased to hear your announcement on Friday agreeing to release the unitech Sevua report. This decision is long overdue and commended.

Friday, 20 December 2013

(Come on Mr. Arore, me, a national security threat? Are you serious? I believe the students revolted several times, because I was NOT present in the country. So first you think you can fire me, and then you release the Sevua report which clears me of all the silly allegations made in my regard?

You have no powers to dismiss me and should not disregard the autonomy of the UNITECH Council, which has endorsed me as VC of UNITECH twice now in its August and December meetings. You yourself are causing continuous unrest and instability by your failure to end this saga.

The report on the Unitech Saga will be released after the festive season.

Minister for Higher Education, Research, Science and Technology, David Arore, gave his assurance that this will be accomplished.
He has appealed to students not to take matters into their own hands, and let due process be completed.

Mr. Arore says, the Unitech Administration did not seek his permission to keep Dr. Scrham on the payroll for the whole year. He says, Dr. Schram has become a threat to the national security of the country.

His presence alone is causing students to revolt, he says.

The investigations are completed and the report will be published soon. He has appealed for calm among the students.

He will not rescind his decision, unless advised by the National Executive Council.

He says, there are plans to appoint a new Vice Chancellor once the report has been released.

ON 8 FEBRUARY THIS YEAR, the vice-chancellor of the University of Technology in Lae, Albert Schram (pictured), was deported from Papua New Guinea. No justification was given for this precipitate action and, since then, Dr Schram’s requests for a both a new visa and an explanation have been ignored.

"Student protest should be encouraged. How managements respond to it is about the sort of university you have in the first place. When choices are made about the university's future, staff, students and their unions should be meaningful citizens and partners. ... It's inevitable people look for other ways to make their voices heard."

(A piece from Radio New Zealand from last June. The Minister seems to have decided that all problems at UNITECH must continue and Schram should not come back. No consideration whatsoever for the staff and students, or the VC. AS)

In today’s world, a country or a people’s reputation is determined by what the world’s more educated people think. Such people are widely read, sometimes well travelled, and able to carry on an intelligent conversation on many topics. The most respected media companies want such people as bureau chiefs and reporters, because smart, educated people are curious enough to investigate and compare extensively before writing about some event happening in the world. These writers inject the perspective of a well educated mind into whatever they write and if they want something to look foolish, that’s what they do.

Thursday, 5 December 2013

(At UNITECH we hired over 20 Faculty members with a PhD from reputable universities. To be frank, as long as the VC crisis at UNITECH is not solved, regrettably not many top expats will want to work in PNG. Council and VC need to work together, just as at DWU. AS)

UPNG and Unitech have been falling backwards for many years. Divine Word passed up these 2 government unis long ago. The reason is obvious. DWU president comes from European culture and DWU is run more like a foreign uni. It doesn’t matter if Father Jan Czuba is a citizen or not. He grew up overseas and manages in a way the rest of the world aspires to. He has a European concept of time and in making decisions that look at long term needs. The way Father Czuba runs Divine Word is the way all PNG unis should be run.

(Thank you Susan for this initiative. Given the "ineffectiveness of government spending" and the grinding poverty in PNG, nobody can be against exposing corruption. Regrettably, now it is still those who expose corruption who have to be looking over their shoulders. AS).

I am asking all PNGeans to become whistleblowers of corruption. I want the corrupt of PNG – especially corrupt leaders, to be constantly looking over their shoulder, wondering who will be watching and reporting on what they do.

On Thursday, 12th December 2013, the council of the PNG University of Technology will decide the fate of UniTech Vice Chancellor Albert Schram. At stake is the standard of education UniTech students will be getting in coming.

Praises to God that a few TRUE PATRIOTS AND TRUE CHILDREN OF GOD are coming out with information that should be shared with the readers of PNGBLOGS. The main obstructionists in Unitech Saga are now known.

About Me

Committed to making a real difference by leading positive change in higher education.

For over 10 years
from 1993-2004, I worked in Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean
in the field of environmental and sustainable development policy, and
environmental economics. My research interest is the role of technology and private business in the development of countries.

As an academic I have 17 peer review publications in various humanities and social sciences disciplines, supervised 5 PhD students and 18 Masters thesis.

As a consultant I worked as head of the environmental
studies department of SIDE, S.A. a consultancy company with
office in Mexico City, San José, and Lima I worked closely together
with many government organizations and private companies. For the World Bank’s Economic Development Institute I carried out two regional studies on sustainable development policies. For the European Commission I wrote one report on corporate social responsiblity, and one on the green economy for the European External Action Service.

Currently, I am Vice-Chancellor or Chief Executive Officer of the Papua New Guinea University of Papua New Guinea, in Lae.